So, Best Buy is about halfway though a 50% off sale on select stores that are drastically reducing their anime inventory. I “live” near one such store and have been browsing through the items that have been left in stock. I’m the type of person that only tends to buy stuffs that I know I want, and what’s left is stuff that I’m not really interested at first glance. At the same time, I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I’ve bought some items that I’ve thought could be interesting (with some advice from various sources), while also getting down a list of things that I want to know more information on, plus my reasons as to why they are on the list:

Fate/stay Night (yeah yeah, I know) – already seen it. Is Kana Ueda and sword bones more than enough to buy it despite story combination troubles (which weren’t really that bad).

Full Metal Panic: TSR – Seen some of FMP, all of Fumoffu, but don’t know much about this. lol fake yuri?

Mahoromatic – liked the manga, but wary of buying anime with frequent blatant nudity. Maybe if I lived by myself, I already would have it.

Shana – Problem is if I got this, the completionist in me tells me I have to go on to season 2, which I hear is not so good.

Zaion – Maybe it’s the name, but something that sticks in my mind.

Samurai 7 – Hear favorable, but not strong, impressions of it.

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World – lol Gainax?

Wandaba Style – Sounds wacky. I like wacky, but is it “good” wacky?

Negima! (1st series) – Though I hear problems with it, I never see anyone completely and utterly slam it down.

Nanaka 6/17 – Saw first episode and liked premise, but not enough to leap of faith it.

King of Bandit Jing – Don’t know too much about this one. First episode interesting, but not enough for me to leap of faith it.

Elemental Gelade – Saw first ep. Kajiura music, but didn’t grab me. Does it get better?

Ergo Proxy (lol I know) – Watched first eight or so eps, and was interesting, but lack of fansubs –> didn’t keep up. Hear it doesn’t end up well.

DNAngel – Seen random episodes. Silly fun, but is it a keeper?

Trinity Blood – Is it any wonder good?

As you notice, a lot of these aren’t necessarily good reasonings to buy them. And I’m pretty sure that plenty of these impressions are entirely off the mark. This sort of sale doesn’t happen often, and I want to take advantage by buying things that I wouldn’t have at full price. Though my MAL might indicate certain types of shows I favor, I’d like to think that I’m open to suggestions on what shows people enjoyed. So I’m wondering if people who’ve checked out these shows can let me know what are good buys, which are so-so buys, and which are no gos. At the same time, if there are titles that aren’t on here that you’ve also found at one of these Best Buy stores near you that you think is awesome and I haven’t mentioned here, I’d be grateful if you give me that information. It helps to try and expand my range of anime knowledge, since lord knows there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t watched/don’t know about.

Hmmm… you haven’t watched season 1 of SnS yet? Here is the thing about Shana. Each season just before the halfway point, you will get an emo, slow, boring, relationship section. Eventually this bad part will get broken by a sweet flashback and then SnS will ramp up really fast and end on a super high. Both seasons follow this pattern. You will immediately know when you are in the crappy section, and you should probably marathon through this part as quickly as possible.

Also, I don’t think you quite understand how pompous Ergo Proxy gets near the end.

Samurai 7 or Ergo Proxy – both have a very solid sense of style and are overall rather characterful shows. I wouldn’t say they have remarkably well-paced, or clear plotting, but they do stand out as rather original pieces.

I lean towards Ergo Proxy myself, but that may be just my philosophy courses speaking.

FMP: TSR is good if you’re really into B-rate movie action, much like season 1. You can have an enemy fire a zillion bullets at the protagonist and he’ll still be left unscathed.

SnS2: Ep01 is a very clever flashback, ep02 is a half-arsed battle, then all slice up to Marjorie’s flashback at ep10 or so. I hung on until episode 16 or so but dropped it as I felt it was poorly directed. Shana just went emo and lost *all* sense of professionalism in a certain battle at ep15 or so and was basically…useless. Alastor needs to hammer her head good… I liked season 1 however as the buildup is done well.

F/SN: I found generally good. Shirou is such a PITA for 2/3 of the series but the art (, Saber, Rin) is pure eyecandy.